NSA spied on 60.5M phone calls in Spain, newspaper reports

Spain’s prime minister has summoned the U.S. ambassador to discuss the allegations.

A report Monday in a Spanish newspaper says the National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain over the course of a month.  

Glenn Greenwald, who has been receiving leaked U.S. government documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, wrote the story for El Mundo. 

As a result, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has summoned the U.S. ambassador to Spain to discuss the allegations, according to The Guardian newspaper. Its report says Rajoy will meet with Ambassador James Costos on Monday. 

El Mundo’s report says the NSA intercepted 60.5 million phone calls in Spain between December 2012, and January 2013. On one day alone, the NSA monitored more than 3.5 million calls, it says. 

This report comes after others from Le Monde and Der Spiegel  last week that claimed the NSA tapped French citizens’ phone calls and even German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone. The Guardian also reported the U.S. had spied on as many as 35 world leaders. 

Merkel called President Obama after receiving word she had been targeted. The White House says the U.S. is not and will not monitor her communications, but did not say whether it had done so previously. 

{mosads}On Sunday night, The Wall Street Journal reported the White House was unaware of the NSA’s targeting of world leaders. 

France and Germany also summoned U.S. ambassadors to their countries over the reports, considered rare moves. 

A delegation from the European Union will visit Washington this week to discuss the NSA allegations with members of Congress. 

Last week, Germany asked the EU’s 28 member nations to sign a “no-spy deal.” Spain rejected that request. 

Brazil and Germany — two countries reports say were targeted — are also leading a charge at the United Nations, according to a document posted by Foreign Policy magazine. They have circulated a resolution among diplomats of 19 other nations that would curb the NSA’s surveillance reach.